


Magic Without Tears

by Fox_Sister



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Sex, Bisexual Male Character, Coffee Shops, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Magic, Magic-Users, Magical Realism, Oral Sex, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Virgin Finn, every fandom needs a coffee shop au right?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-08-08 06:17:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7746325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fox_Sister/pseuds/Fox_Sister
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn's life is boring, his job is soul-sucking, and his self esteem is weak to say the least. That is, until he meets a handsome waiter at a local coffee shop, and Finn discovers life can be more magical than he ever imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Finn could hear the alarm on his phone go off, but he didn’t get up to turn it off. Once he did, he knew his day would really begin, and he was much more content to sleep.

“You have to get up eventually.” His roommate, Rey, to him called from the kitchen. 

Finn moaned. It was this first chilly day of autumn, and his bed was empty and warm, the thought of being anywhere else was truly inconceivable. Eventually he hit the screen of his phone, turning the alarm off, and rolled out of bed. 

\- - -

It was the same thing every day: Sleep, work, sleep, and Finn was sick of it, but didn’t know what could break him out of it.

“Shit, shit,” The subway was late, making him late, meaning his already cold boss was going to eat his head today. Finn shivered on the subway platform as a cold breeze from the oncoming train wrapped around him, and cursed that he wasn’t still in bed. He looked at his watch and swore again. Every minute that passed he could feel his boss getting angrier and angrier. She had threatened to kill him before, maybe today was the day she would finally do it.

When Finn finally reached his office he shuffled in quickly, avoiding eye contact as he sat down in his desk. A few minutes passed as Finn booted up his computer and unpacked his bag. He thought to himself that maybe his lateness had gone unnoticed, when a hand covered in silver rings landed on his desk.

He followed the hand up its arm, till he saw the face of his boss, Phasma, staring coldly down at him. She was an intimidating figure: taller than anyone he had ever met, with short blonde hair straighter than a razor’s edge, and piercing blue eyes.

“This is the third time this month you’ve been late.” She said, her British accent clipping him.

“Yes, I know, I’m sorry. The trains-“

“You can’t keep blaming the MTA for your mistakes.” She said. “Don’t let it happen again.” She took her hand off his desk, scraping her silver rings across it’s surface. “Oh, and I expect your report by the end of this month.”

“But I thought I had until the end of next month!” Finn could feel his palms start to sweat. 

“Things have changed.” Phasma said before turning around. “Figure it out.”

Some of his coworkers shot sympathetic glances his way as Phasma passed, while others kept their heads down. Finn sighed and sat back in his chair, envisioning his paycheck over and over again to keep himself from quitting on the spot.

\- - -

The day passed without any other incident, all around it was actually pretty boring despite the lingering fear, and regrets at having taking the job to begin with. When five o’clock rolled around, Finn wasted no time in packing up his things and heading out. On his way out he closed his eyes and pictured a blackboard with all the worries of the day listed in white chalk, and slowly began to erase them from his head until all was calm, and dark.

He walked through the city on his normal walk, the same one that brought him to and from work everyday, and felt a familiar wave of boredom wash over him. Same thing as usual, no variation.

Finn looked at his watch. He didn’t have anywhere to be at the moment, and what was he going to do if he went straight home, make food and watch TV? He looked around and decided to walk in a direction he had never been before. The buildings eventually grew shorter, and the normally straight road began to curve. Finn had been to this part of town before, but had never spent much time.

After a few minutes, he looked over to a small triangular park where a large elm tree cast its shadow over the whole intersection. There was a café next to it with a faded white and orange awning. Normally, Finn would have walked by a place like it, but today felt different.

“Why not?” He signed to himself and walked in.

Inside there were fewer customers than Finn thought there would be for a place around rush hour. It was quaint, with mismatched furniture and brick walls covered in tiny paintings. A warm orange light filled the room, as well as the smell of coffee.

“Staying or going?”

Finn turned around at the sound of a woman’s voice.

“Are you staying or going?” The woman behind the counter asked again. She was young, with tattoos covering her arms and black hair tied in a messy bun. 

“Um, staying.” Finn replied.

“Ok, sit anywhere you like, someone will be with you!”

Finn looked around, and finally picked out a comfy looking blue armchair sitting next to a round table, and what was probably an old fireplace when this building was still a house and you could still have fireplaces in cities.

It became clear after about a minute of sitting still that Finn wasn’t very good at waiting. He shuffled in his seat, checked his phone more than once, and made a point of reading every old book spine on the shelf by him.

“Alright, what will it be?”

Finn turned to look up, and saw his waiter standing over him. He had skin the color of warm sand, with dark brown hair and eyes that went a little wide when Finn looked up at him.

“I, oh, um, sorry I didn’t-“ Finn stammered at he tried to look around for a menu.

The waiter laughed “Hey buddy it’s no problem, take your time.”

Finn gave a meek smile “Sorry, I’ll just take a coffee I guess, decaf.”

“That it?” The waiter put a hand on his hip and smiled down at Finn. “You can take your time you know, you’re way too cute to be so nervous.”

Finn didn’t have anything to say to that and simply felt his jaw go slack. 

The waiter laughed at him and took a step away. “Alright, one coffee, coming up.” 

Finn could feel himself blushing as the other man walked away, and was grateful his skin was dark enough to hide it. Just as he felt it begin to eb away, the waiter came back around from behind the counter, a cup of coffee in one hand, and a small plate in the other. He placed them both on the small table next to Finn.

“Here you are,” He hummed at Finn.

“I didn’t order this,” Finn wasn’t sure what kind of pastry was on the small white plate, something crumbly and delicious looking with raspberry at the center.

“I know you didn’t,” The waiter said, leaning against the top of Finn’s tall chair “I just felt like you could use a sweet,” Finn thought he caught a small wink. “you seem stressed. Don’t worry, it’s on the house.” 

“I’m fine.” Finn said, a bit more defensibly than he was used to. 

The waiter tilted his head, not quite jilted by Finn’s tone. “You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Well if you ever want to talk I’ll be here.” He extended his hand. “I’m Poe, by the way, Poe Dameron.” 

“Finn,” Finn shook Poe’s hand. It was warm enough to be almost hot to the touch, and Finn felt an unfamiliar flutter of nerves well up in him as Poe smiled down at him.

“Alright, I’ll let you have your coffee.” Poe said as he turned to walk away. 

Finn sipped his cup and pretended he wasn’t forcing himself to keep from watching Poe walk away. 

With each sip that passed his lips, he felt himself grow calmer.


	2. Chapter 2

Alarm. Shower. Change. Eat. Work.

It was the same routine again the next morning, but somehow some of the weight Finn had felt over the last few weeks and months seemed to be ease from his shoulders, if only slightly. He actually felt himself smile more than once as he got ready and headed out the door.

Every now and again, Finn’s mind would drift back to the café, and Poe, but he quickly pushed the images away. He frowned as he stepped off the subway, unsure why thoughts of Poe and his soft, curly hair and constant smile kept popping up in his head, and unsure as to why he kept pushing the thoughts away. 

Work was boring, as usual. Finn often thought it a marvel that the company he worked at, one of the biggest and most important companies in the world, “First Order Oil” could be so boring on the day-to-day grind. 

People protested his company all the time. Just last week a bunch of hippies tied themselves to one of their oil rigs to stop them from doing repairs in order to keep it open. They had flashy signs tied around their necks with phrases like “First Order Kills” and “Stop the Empire of Oil” that made the whole company seem pretty evil.  
Finn drummed his fingers on the desk as he looked through his spreadsheets once again. He knew First Order had done some pretty messed up stuff, but from where he was sitting, they didn’t seem exciting enough to be evil. 

Five o’clock rolled around almost without Finn noticing, he was in such a blur from the endless numbers he had to run all day. He leaned back in the elevator on his way down and expected to clear his mind just like usual, but instead of a chalkboard he saw the café he ate at yesterday, and instead of all his daily worries, he found himself picturing Poe’s face. His eyes snapped open as the elevator hit the fist floor.

 

“Well, well, you came back!” Poe beamed at Finn as he walked through the doors of the café, which he now realized was called “La Resistenza.” 

Finn rubbed the back of his neck and looked around. “Yeah well, that was pretty good coffee yesterday.

“And what about the sweet?” 

Finn rubbed his hands together “It was fine, I guess.”

Poe laughed and grabbed a menu off the counter. “Alright then, same place?”

Finn nodded, and looked around the room, at other customers, at the specials hung above the register, unconsciously he looked everywhere but Poe’s strong, bare arms as they lead him back to his same seat from yesterday.

“So, you seem a little less stressed than yesterday.” Poe said as Finn sat down.

“Only a little?” Finn tried to joke as he took his coat off.

Poe smiled “Yeah, only a little. You still seem pretty stressed.”

“A decaf coffee might help with that.” Finn finally met Poe’s steady gaze, determined not to falter under it. 

Poe met it, leaning in. “If I get you some coffee, will you promise to tell me what’s stressing you out?”

“If your bring me coffee I promise to pay you.”

Poe laughed. “A sense of humor after all. Alright, I’ll be right back.” 

 

When Poe returned he had yet another pastry ready for Finn, this time a brownie that positively glistened under the low light. Finn went to take it, but Poe moved the plate just out of his reach. 

“First you tell me what’s got someone as good looking as you looking so down all the time.”

Finn’s expression darkened as he quickly glanced around the room to make sure no one was nearby. “Why are you always hitting on me?”

“Who said I was hitting on you?” Poe tried to play it cool, but had to bite his lip to keep a smile from spreading across his face.

Finn ignored the question and crossed his arms. “You don’t even know if I’m gay or not.”

“Oh, honey.” The other man leaned against Finn’s chair somewhat dramatically before coming to his senses “Wait, are you?”

“No.” Finn shook his head and laughed as a look of horror momentarily crossed Poe’s face. “I’m bi.” 

“Oh God, don’t scare me like that.” Poe covered half his face with his hand.

“Sorry,” Finn sipped his coffee, and just like before a wave of calm seemed to come over him. Maybe that was why he looked up at Poe and suddenly said “You’re only the third person I’ve told.”

Poe’s round, brown eyes went a bit wide at that. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Finn suddenly felt very small and retreated slightly back into the cushions of his chair. 

“Well, hey, I’m flattered.” Poe said “Why only the third?”

Finn pressed his lips together, as if trying to keep his thoughts bottled up in his head, but another sip of coffee and they came spilling out. “Well my best friend, Rey, knows, and my ex knows, but I never had any real parents to tell and I don’t know, I guess a part of me is still sorting through it all, and dosen’t want to broadcast it to everyone until I’ve got it all figured out.”

The other man nodded at him, taking in all he had just heard. “Why no parents to tell?”

“I never really knew them.” Finn said. “They died when I was young.” It sounded a lot worse than it was. He had foster parents, some of whom were really amazing and he still talked to all the time, but none of them ever really felt like his parents. 

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Poe said “My mom died when a kid too. It sucks.” There was a pause before he continued “And what about your ex, are they the person who has you so stressed out right now?”

Finn shook his head “No, we broke up over a year ago. I only dated him for the last few months of college anyway. It was stupid.” Finn looked down into his cup and willed his memories to go away. 

“Don’t give yourself such a hard time.” Poe said “Almost every first relationship is dumb in someway, but you have to go through them to get to the good stuff.” He smiled at Fin, and the other man hated the way that look suddenly made him feel.

“Don’t you have other customers to get to?” Finn said.

“This time of day?” The waiter looked around. “No, this is our slowest point, and my shift gets off in a half hour anyway.”

“Ok, well can I have my brownie then?” Finn asked, adding a roll of his eyes for affect.

Poe chuckled “You still haven’t told me what’s stressing you out.”

Finn looked right at him, “My boss.”

The other man shrugged and handed Finn the plate. “Alright, good enough answer, for now.” He added.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you I'd be back ;D
> 
> Have some notes (A note):
> 
> "La Resistenza" Is Itallian for "The Resistance."
> 
> See you all next week!


	3. Chapter 3

"And why are you coming home so late?" Rey called to Finn from the couch as he walked in the door to their apartment. She was thin and pale, with long hair she kept tied up in a bun, but you could hardly see her at the moment under all the sweatshirts and blankets she was covered in. Rey hated the cold.

"I can come home whenever I like." Finn tried to say standoffishly, but it just came out as a whine.

"Yeah, but you always come home at the same time." Rey said, looking up from her laptop. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah,” He threw his bag on a chair and started taking off his tie as he walked toward his bedroom.

Rey got up and followed him. She leaned in the doorway as Finn sat on his bed to take off his shoes. “I don’t believe you.” She said.

“I’m fine.” Finn looked up at her.

She narrowed her eyes at him and seemed to scan his whole frame. “Something happened.”

Rey and Finn had been friends since college. She was the first real friend Finn had in a lot of ways, not that he didn’t have friends before, but Rey was different. She was someone he could tell anything to, and he was that to her. Rey was the first person Finn ever came out to, the only person he really felt comfortable around, and she could always, always tell when he was lying.

Finn sighed. “Well, nothing bad happened,” He told her about the café, and the annoying, but nice, but maybe (definitely) attractive waiter who kept hitting on him.

“Well, do you like him?” Rey asked, eyes gleaming with excitement as she sat down next to Finn.

“I don’t know.” He said.

“Ok,” She said “but would you go on a date with him if he asked you out?”

Finn wasn’t sure about that. He didn’t dislike Poe, not exactly. If he was being honest, he actually liked the way Poe joked with him, and the strange pull he felt whenever he was around, and Finn guessed he was cute. It was just something about him that put Finn off. Maybe it was that he was so confidant, so sure about everything in a way that Finn simply wasn’t.

“I don’t know if I could handle a relationship right now.” He finally said.

“Oh Finn, come on!” Rey pleaded “You deserve to have some fun! You haven’t dated at all since you broke up with Mike.”

“That’s because,” Finn licked his lips “Well, I mean, you know I’m still not totally comfortable with, well, with THAT” He stammered. 

“By ‘that’ you mean…?” 

Finn rolled his eyes and looked at the ground. “I mean, liking girls and guys.”

Rey opened her mouth to interrupt him but Finn kept going.

“I mean, I don’t want to go on dates with guys, or I guess girls either, until I’ve figured myself out.”

Rey flopped her arms around in her bulky sweatshirt. “Finn, you’re never going to figure out what being bisexual means to you until you go out there and try it! Or at least stop running from even the thought of it.”

“Yeah, just, I’ll do it when I’m ready.”

Rey frowned “Finn, I can’t force you to address this stuff, but answer me truthfully, do you like this guy?”

She looked right into Finn’s eyes, and Finn knew it would do no good to try and lie to her.

“I don’t know.” He said finally.

“Well, then going on a date with him might be the only way to find out for certain.”

Finn gnawed on his lip but said nothing. 

“Alright,” Rey looked at the time on her phone. “I have to finish coding this program for work by morning. Do you need to talk more?”

“Ugh, don’t bring up work.” Finn moaned and covered his face. “Yeah, I’m good.”

Rey smiled and gave Finn a big hug (she had always been stronger than she looked.) “Let me know if I can help.”


	4. Chapter 4

“These plans are all wrong.”

Finn could overhear Hux, General Manager of First Order Oil, whispering with Phasma in the hallway as he ate his lunch in the break room. Finn rarely interacted with Hux, he was too high up the ladder, and Finn was alright with that. 

“I know they’re horrible.” Phasma agreed.

“Well what are we going to do? If we can’t get a new station built in this quarter Snoke will have me fired. I can feel it.”

“I have Finn compiling a list of potential future sights and what would be needed to build each one within this quarter. He should have it done by the end of the month.”

Finn stilled at the mention of his name, and slowly stood up to inch closer to the door.

“Do you trust him to do that?” Hux asked, Finn could hear the frown in his voice.

“We’ll see. If he fails we’ll have him fired and put Samantha on it.”

“And just go down the line like that?” Hux said, a bit loudly. “Snoke needed these plans yesterday, I can’t afford to wait around and go through all of our employees just to find the best place to put a new fracking operation!”

Finn could feel his palms sweat, and hoped neither Hux, nor Phasma could hear his heart beat.  
“He’ll have it done.” Phasma said evenly. “Don’t worry.”

Finn heard footsteps as the pair walked away down the hall. Only once he heard a door open and shut did he feel like the could breath again.  
“You’ll be fine.” He said to himself. “You’ll be fine.”

\- - -

When Finn walked into La Resistenza that evening, the place was nearly empty, and Poe was sitting at a round table off to the side, looking at a set of cards with the tattooed woman from behind the counter.

He shifted on his feet for a second before deciding to walk over. Halfway across the room, Poe looked up and beamed. “Hey buddy!”

“Hey.” Finn gave a quick smile and ignored the rush that went through him when he caught Poe’s gaze. “What do you have here?”

On the table were about a dozen cards with bright illustrations. They had people and animals and various objects drawn all over them, but the one that caught Finn’s eye was a simple one towards the center with two wine goblets on it.

Poe smiled and pulled out a seat. “You ever had your tarot cards read? Jessica is the best.” He pointed to the tattooed woman, who waved at Finn.

“Um, no.” Finn said slowly, glancing over the cards. “I’ve never really been into that stuff.”

“Really?” Poe asked.

“Yeah, why?”

Poe stared at him for a second, almost as if he was searching for something. “Nothing, no reason.” He turned and smiled at Jessica. “I think I’m good here.”

She winked at him and started gathering the cards back into a deck. “All right, Knight of Cups. Hit me up if you’re free later, I still need a reading from you.”

She packed up her things and went behind the counter. Finn watched her leave, but felt Poe’s eyes still raking him over, still searching…

“So,” Poe finally said. “Can I get you anything?”

“Just the usual I guess.” Finn said.

“Excellent. Be right back.” Poe got up and went behind the counter.

Finn waited patiently for the other man to get back, trying to count all the potted plants in the room and failing. He realized after a minute, that he was smiling. That made Finn pause, he hadn’t smiled all to himself in a long time.

Poe came back, cup of coffee in hand. “Where’s my free pastry?” Finn asked, playfully looking behind Poe’s back.

“Oh, I can see how spoiled I’ve made you.” The other man bit his lip, and for the first time since Finn had started talking to him, Poe looked a little nervous. “Actually, I didn’t want to spoil your appetite.”

Finn’s eyebrows stitched together. “Sorry?”

Poe rubbed his hands together. “I get off work in just a few minutes, and I was wondering if you maybe wanted to grab dinner?”

Finn felt his jaw go slack and was suddenly very grateful to be sitting down. “I-well,” He shook his head. “No, sorry.” He looked at Poe’s face, but immediately wished he hadn’t. The other man’s eyes had gone just slightly wide, and his ever-present smile faltered for the first time since they had met. The expression passed only for a moment, but it made Finn’s heart break.

“That’s ok!” Poe quickly said. “Forget about it, it’s no big deal.” He tapped the back of the chair with the heel of his palm “Well, I should get back to work. See you around.”  
He turned and walked away, just slightly faster than he has walked over. Finn touched a hand to his mouth. Why did he say that? He had meant it. Had he? Finn felt his blood racing. Had he made a mistake?

Well, if he had, there was no way Finn could correct it now. He looked into his coffee and sipped it slowly. The same familiar calm came over him. Finn nodded to himself, he had definitely made the right decision. He drank the rest of his coffee and left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...But y'all know it wasn't the right decision :P
> 
> -The two tarot cards mentioned are "the two of cups" and "the knight of cups" I'll let you guys figure out what those mean ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave kudos/comments if you like!
> 
> I'll try to post as often as I can, but I can't promise life won't get in the way sometimes.
> 
> Not many notes for the first chapter, but here we go:
> 
> The title is taken from Aleister Crowley's 1954 book "Magick Without Tears." Keep an eye out for Occult references because they are going to keep coming.


End file.
